Two lies the Kremlin has been spouting about the Ukraine conflict have just been exposed.

The first lie is that the conflict in Donbas is a civil war that Russia is not involved in.

A report in the German newspaper Bild revealed that a virtual shadow government in Moscow is running the day-to-day affairs of the separatist-held territories of eastern Ukraine.

According to leaked documents, this shadow government includes Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, a longtime confidant of Vladimir Putin. It is responsible for such matters as finance, taxes, wages, public services, trade, energy, and transportation.

The second lie is that Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko was apprehended on Russian territory after she was complicit in the deaths of two Russian journalists in Donbas.

In an extensive interview, a separatist fighter who participated in Savchenko's capture has revealed to the Russian news site Meduza that she was taken on Ukrainian territory and was already in custody when the journalists were killed by mortar fire.

Now of course, we know the Putin regime has been lying about these things for some time.

They lie as a matter of course, after all.

But their lies are becoming increasingly harder to sustain.

What is happening in eastern Ukraine is an invasion and an occupation; Nadia Savchenko is a hostage; and Putin's Russia is a hostage-taking nation.